Snow

I woke later than normal this morning, and heard pebbles against the window glass. Aften putting on my glasses, I pulled back the blinds and looked out. It looked like snow, but, since they weren't flakes but little round dots, I knew that it was freezing rain. I hate freezing rain. The roads are slick enough around town, we don't need them to get worse.

By noon, it had changed over to a light snow without any wind. It's so peaceful outside when that occurs, and I became mesmerized by it. A bit later, I headed out to a birthday party for the children of my good friends, and even though it was pretty crisp outside, it didn't feel that bad. The cold was sort of soft, something that doesn't happen often. The streets, as I feared, were a little slick, but not so bad that I was overly concerned.

After the party, I met up with a few friends for supper. When we got to the cafe, it was still that soft cold, and the snow had quite falling hours before. We laughed hard and caught up on a lot of stuff, and at one point were joined by the brother of one of the guys with me. I knew him as well from years ago, and we spent quite a bit of time catching up. I told him about Crystal, school, teaching, and all of that; he told me of living and working construction for 15 years and two marriages, going from motel to motel, living on the road 320 days of the year. He also said that he's thinking of going back to school in the fall, and most likely, enrolling at my school. "I'm sick of working in the weather on days like this," Shane stated, pointing over his shoulder with his often hammered thumb.

As we were chatting, his cell chirped, and after answering, asked if we wanted to head up the road to Manvel (about 10 miles nort' of us) for a wild game feed. We all thought, hey, why not? We paid our tabs, wrapped up to face the great outdoors, and when I stepped outside, realized how nasty it was outside. The wind was blowing hard, the snow and frozen rain pellets polishing the ice already coating the tarmac. I looked to Shane, shook his hand, and begged off for the night. "I think I need to sit this one out, mi amigo, but, I'll look for you again now that I know you're back in town." He laughed and nodded, saying that he'll look me up as well.

I got home, my drive slightly drifted and unmarked by tire prints. It's amazing what the wind carries with it.